𝔻𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕔𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕒𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕤 𝕒 𝕕𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕠 𝕦𝕤 𝕒𝕝𝕝

𝔻𝕣 𝕊𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕩𝕤𝕚𝕖 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕤 𝕒 𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕓𝕚𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕚𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕗𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕌𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝔸𝕦𝕔𝕜𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕.

I

n October last year, the scientific journal Nature reported on a surveyit had carried out asking over 300 scientists about their experiences after speaking to the media about Covid-19.

The results were chilling. Attacks on their credibility. Reputational damage. Threats of physical or sexual violence. Death threats. These are the things a scientist can expect to start happening if they take a journalist’s call.

The results weren’t a surprise to me. I’ve been experiencing those things for over two years now.

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You might be asking why I’d keep answering the media’s questions if things are so bad. I ask myself the same question whenever my phone rings. I answer it, not because I’m “a narcissistic fraud” as one person called me recently, but because we are in a global pandemic.

As an infectious disease expert, I have important information that will help keep people and their livelihoods as safe as possible during this difficult time.

Stuff science columnist Dr Siouxsie Wiles.

In May, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke at Harvard’s graduation ceremony. She commented on the abuse she receives, saying she sometimes imagines it being written by “a lone person unacquainted with personal hygiene practices, dressed in a poorly fitted superhero costume – one that is baggy in all the wrong places”.

This conjures up an entertaining image, and one I’m sure we can laugh about. But while it might be an accurate description of some harassers, it’s not true for all of them.

While I get my fair share of anonymous abuse, plenty of my harassers use their real names. Some even use their work email addresses.

I sometimes look them up out of curiosity. They are company executives, small business owners, real estate agents, electricians, engineers, and political and mayoral candidates.

One small wealth management company seems to have made it a company policy, judging by how many of their staff email me.

In other words, much of the harmful harassment I experience doesn’t come from some lonely keyboard warrior. It comes from ordinary people just like you.

But even I was shocked to be disingenuously targeted by a political journalist working for a reputable media organisation. What he did was a textbook example of disinformation – the use of false or misleading information to push a particular agenda. It’s not my first time being harassed this way, and I’m guessing it won’t be the last.

That’s because disinformation campaigns work. They leave people with niggling doubts about the subject's credibility. That’s why they’ve been used for years against scientists speaking out on topics like tobacco control and fossil fuels. But the pandemic seems to have taken things to another level.

A representative of the media organisation involved has since apologised that their journalist got basic facts wrong, but not for the disinformation campaign.

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Don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe that our media organisations should be holding people like me to account. But we should be holding them accountable too.

Whether it's Covid-19, monkeypox, or the climate crisis, the world needs its scientists to be able to speak to the media without becoming targets for abuse or having disinformation used to damage their reputations. Our lives and livelihoods depend on it.

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